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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24779344">One Match</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/caliico/pseuds/jambuds'>jambuds (caliico)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fire, Gen, Originally written a year ago for a scary story contest at my school, Short Story, but my mom asked if that was why I wrote this, kind of based on a house fire that happened seven years ago, not really - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2018-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2018-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:54:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24779344</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/caliico/pseuds/jambuds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On a stormy Halloween night, thirteen year old Rachel Rose was in her room, reading her book. A trick of the light makes her think that there may be something weird going on in her room...or maybe it isn't a trick at all.</p><p>(short story)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>One Match</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I originally wrote this story in October of 2018 for a scary story contest at my school! I decided to tweak it just a bit and post it here. I had a 500 world limit last time, so I was able to add about 100 more words.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bright, sunny day on Monday was nothing like the dark, stormy night on Friday. Rachel Rose hid under her bed covers that Halloween night. Even though she was 13, she was still sad that she couldn't get dressed up in her beautiful, flowing vampire dress because of the lightning. If her parents would let her, that is. Her mother would always tell her she was too old to go trick-or-treating. She wished she was her 7-year-old sister, Maya, who had thrown a fit when it started raining. She had stood outside on the porch in the rain until her dad told her she would be struck by lightning if she didn't come inside. Not the best thing to tell a second-grader, but it worked, none-the-less.</p><p> </p><p>A loud clap of thunder shook the house, so Rachel decided to try calming herself down by grabbing her favorite book. She couldn't see with the lights turned off in her room, so she tried grabbing her phone on her bedside table. What she grabbed, though, was definitely not her phone. She looked at what was in her hand. A box...of matches. Rachel was sure there had been nothing on her table besides her phone and some books. How did a box of matches get there? Suddenly, a strike of lightning appeared out her window, and she peered out to see what it had hit. When she saw that nothing was on fire, she looked back to what was in her hand. Her phone. She assumed it was just a trick of the light, and turned her phone on to put the passcode in. As more light flashed outside, the matches returned. This time, there was a match sticking out of the box.</p><p> </p><p>Rachel started getting concerned. "Okay...this must be a dream. A weird dream," she closed her eyes. "I'll wake up and it'll be bright and sunny just like Monday. A beautiful morning, and it won't rain at all." She saw red in her eyes, signaling that there was a bright light in front of her.</p><p> </p><p>She snapped them open. Previously just a dull match, the stick from the box was now on fire. She tried to scream, but she couldn't. Why couldn't she? Oh, of course, it was a dream. A nightmare. She couldn't scream. She was asleep.</p><p> </p><p>The match dropped from her hand, falling onto her bedspread. The only noise that came from her mouth was a small squeak. She shot up from her bed and into the cold air, getting warmer and warmer as the fire spread and got bigger and bigger.</p><p> </p><p>She looked around, trying to find something to calm the fire. But instead, the only thing she could see was a girl. A shadow of a girl, to be exact, with glowing blue eyes and a ponytail, outside of her window, which didn't make sense since she was on the top floor. After a long moment of silence, she disintegrated. And as Rachel held her breath, she turned to her bed, but everything was fine. She climbed into bed and went to sleep, feeling calm, because it wasn't real. Right?</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>She woke up to the sound of alarms and bright lights. She could hardly see a thing when somebody picked her up and carried her out the window.</p><p> </p><p>"What's going on?" She asked when she saw her family on the ground.</p><p> </p><p>"A fire." Her mother said and pointed to the building. She was holding Maya, who was bawling her eyes out.</p><p> </p><p>"What? How?" Then she remembered. The dream. She turned around, and there she was.</p><p> </p><p>The shadow, holding a match.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In case you're wondering, for some reason, I didn't win the contest, sadly. BUT I did get into the finals! It was fun to do. The other entries were amazing, as well. Hope you guys liked this, lol</p><p>(Also, the shadow is based off of my design of April in my Stitches book wink wink nudge nudge)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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